A Menagerie Of Mascots

A coyote, a snowshoe hare and an American black bear - it could be worse.

In fact, mascot casting has been much worse in Olympics past. Who can forget the pool-cover blue alien/animal with the ping-pong-ball eyes that was Whatizit, known as Izzy (1996 Atlanta), and the meatloaf-like black beaver mascot Amik (1976 Montreal)?

At least Salt Lake's mascots, Powder, Copper and Coal, are characters you might spy on a kid's cereal box or staring out from the Saturday morning kidcoms. The mountain creatures are colorful and knowable and unlikely to put a bad paw forward during the upcoming games.

Whether they will make a mark in Olympic mascot history - a book already rich with snow owls, snow imps, snowmen, raccoons, wolves, polar bears and a platypus - is a matter for the fates.

Many have been created in the last 30 years, but few are remembered.

"Schuss," a big-headed cartoon figure on skis, was the first unofficial Olympic mascot, appearing in Grenoble in 1968. He was followed, predictably, by the first "official" mascot, "Waldi" the multistriped Dachshund (1972 Munich), remembered chiefly for being the first official mascot.

Since then, there has been a mascot for every summer and winter Olympic games except Sapporo 1972 (don't ask). Notables include:

The longest name for a mascot award goes to Mikhail Potapych Topyygin, also called Misha (1980 Moscow).

Roni (Lake Placid 1980) was a local sentimental favorite, having replaced an actual live raccoon mascot "Rocky" who died before the games began. He was the first mascot to appear in sporting poses on various products.

The vividly colored snow owls with the too-cute names - Sukki, Nokki, Lekki and Tsukki (1998 Nagano) - were the first mascot foursome. Snowlets everywhere are still smarting.

Cowboy-hatted polar bears, Hidy and Howdy, were brother-sister mascots (1988 Calgary) and wouldn't have made any list if they hadn't been the first dual mascots in the games.

Not surprisingly, the H-twins were followed by the first people-like mascots, Haakon and Kristin, two doll children from Norwegian folklore (1994 Lillehammer). The pair pushed everything from pins to posters to plush toys to piggy banks.